The Real Gift
by Willow08
Summary: Post reunion fic. The Doctor gives Rose a present he didn't get chance to give her before. Just a bit of Ten/Rose fluffy stuff. Rated T but no graphic adult themes.


Disclaimer: I don't own Dr. Who but I'm among the millions who wish they did.

Hi. This is my fifth fan fic. Just a bit of fluffy Ten/Rose. Hope you like. Please review thanks!

"Open your eyes" he whispered, a nervous anticipation building up inside him.

Rose looked down at the object resting in the palms of her hands. It was a necklace, with a fine silvery chain and a pendant more beautiful than any from Earth. Its large, three dimensional heart shape was heavy in Rose's hands, though she noted that the chain itself was weightless. One side of the heart was curved glass. It had a smooth, tactile quality and was brilliantly clear. The reverse side was a smoky silver in colour and free from any finger prints or smudges. Behind the glass were twinkling stars and galaxies which moved and rotated as Rose watched them.

The Doctor saw the expression on Rose's face change from wonder to bewilderment.

"Heart of the Stars," he explained. "From Gallifrey. I was going to give it to you before but there never seemed to be the right moment. And then…well…you know what happened. Anyway, I packed it away. Thought I'd never be able to give it to you. That there would never be the right moment. And now…now is the right moment."

He gave her a weak smile, almost as though he was embarrassed to present her with such a gift.

Rose returned his smile with a beaming grin and then buried him under a huge hug. She kissed his cheek, causing the Doctor to blush and then looked again into the Heart of the Stars.

"Its beautiful Doctor. I don't know what to say!…….Thank you!"

"You're welcome."

"Are they real stars?" she asked.

"They're an imprint of whole galaxies and constellations captured forever. Sort of like a film, playing over and over again but a film so long that it takes hundreds of years to reach the end. Its bigger on the inside but you can't break it open or you'd loose the imprint. Still no chance of anyone breaking it. A nuclear bomb couldn't break that - its Gallifreyan diamond. The chain is too. That chain's about as strong as oh…I'd say about a thousand or so men. Try it on…" the Doctor suggested.

Rose tried to open the clasp on the chain, but it was small and quite tricky.

"Can't open it. This clasp's a bit Earthy, why couldn't they put an easier one on it?" she complained.

"Look at you, buy you a present and you're moaning already! You might have been away for awhile but some things never change!" the Doctor laughed.

"Oy! I'm not moaning!"

The Doctor smiled and took the necklace from Rose. He reached around her neck to fasten the two ends together and, whilst doing so, gazed into her eyes. He smiled and let go of the chain. As he stepped back, Rose gasped.

"It doesn't weight anything. How's it lost all that weight?"

"Oh, you know, Time Lord physics. You wouldn't be interested. Laws of physics."

"Meaning-" Rose stared at the Doctor.

"Meaning what?" The Doctor looked mock innocent.

"Meaning you don't know."

"I do know, I just got better things to do than explain it."

"If you say so." Rose smiled and then burst out laughing.

"So, do you like it?" he asked, ignoring her fit of giggles.

Rose turned and looked at her reflection in the TARDIS wall. Realising it wasn't particularly effective she spun back round to face the Doctor.

"Have you got a mirror?" she asked.

"Erm…should have somewhere," he replied, reaching deep into his suit pockets and pulling out a small black framed mirror. "Ah hah! Yes - here. One mirror!"

Rose stifled a laugh.

"You keep a mirror in your pocket? What for? Checking to see if you look pretty before you go out?" Rose laughed.

The Doctor looked positively offended at the idea.

"In case I need a mirror. You know…for reflecting things…Light!…and stuff…good in pyramids…always take a mirror to a pyramid."

Rose rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't tell Micky!" he commanded, as if he was reading Rose's exact thoughts.

"Oh…I won't" Rose replied, perfectly sweetly. The Doctor responded with a glare.

He suddenly pulled out his sonic screwdriver as Rose admired her necklace in the little mirror. She complained loudly when the Doctor reached over again and removed the gift. He took the pendant and turned it over in his free hand so the silver side faced him. He pointed the sonic screwdriver directly at the pendant and began to work feverishly, tracking the screwdriver's beam back and forth across the silver surface. Glancing up and seeing Rose's frown, he explained himself.

"Never really used this setting before but know roughly how it works. My Dad was always the expert at this type of thing. Might not be perfect but…" his sentence hung, unfinished, in the air.

Apparently finished, he replaced the sonic screwdriver back in his top pocket and rotated the pendant in his hand to Rose could read the freshly carved inscription.

"The diamond is really hard to scratch so it took a bit longer than I thought."

Rose didn't hear this as she was too absorbed in the words gleaming off the surface of the pendant.

_Rose Tyler, I love you too. _

In the next few moments the Doctor remembered Rose simultaneously laughing, crying and smiling before he took her face in his hands, the pendant quickly deposited into his pocket, and kissed her with so much more passion and love than he ever believed he could feel or express.

Later, when Rose sat alone in the TARDIS console room (the Doctor off tinkering somewhere, determined to fix a problem that didn't really exist) she looked again at the necklace the Doctor had returned to her. Though it was beautiful and magical alone, it was a thousand times more than that with the Doctor's message. Those words, Rose concluded, were the real gift.

Hi. This was just a random idea I had. Hope it worked. Please review thank you !!


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